Bill Compton

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William H. "Bill" Compton, Jr., MA (b. October 6, 1945, Rockford, Illinois - d. August 27, 2007) was a mental health advocate in California who attained national stature. After suffering a mental health crisis in 1989, he became heavily involved in self-help and patients' rights advocacy issues, including running a large network of peer support groups between 1994 and 2007.

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[edit] Work in the mental health field

Beginning in 1994,[1] Compton headed Project Return: The Next Step (PR:TNS), a consumer-run self-help network supported by the National Mental Health Association of Greater Los Angeles. In May 2007, the organization was renamed Project Return Peer Support Network.[2] He became director of the network when the sponsoring organization decided to turn the network's administration over to those who used its services.[3]

Compton built the network from about thirty peer-support groups to more than one hundred,[4] which employed about one hundred individuals in positions ranging from stipend to full time, serving several thousand individuals with serious mental disorders.[5] The network included projects that Compton developed, such as PR:TNS Discovery Centers, which provided personal and professional growth opportunities, and the Friendship Line, an after-hours phone service that provided peer-to-peer support for people with mental illness.[6]

Compton was on the Board of Directors of Mental Health America (formerly the National Mental Health Association) from 2002 to 2007.[7] He was also president of the board of Protection & Advocacy, Inc. of California,[8] which focused on protecting the rights of mental health and other disabled consumers throughout California.[6] Beginning in November, 2003, Compton was the chairman of the board of directors for the Pacific Clinic, the largest nonprofit mental health organization in California, based in Pasadena, California; he left that position in 2005.[9][8]

In 2005, Compton wrote a one-man play, "Swept Away or The Week That I Went Crazy." He performed it at a number of conferences and schools.[4]

[edit] Personal history

Compton was born in 1945 in Rockford, Illinois. He spent his teenage years at a military boarding school in West Virginia; during the 1960s, he was a vocal anti-war activist.[4] Compton earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1969 in Theater Arts from the University of Akron, and returned to earn a master of arts degree in 1986. During this time he worked as an actor, producer and director in New York, Boston, and eventually Los Angeles.[9] In Boston, in the 1970s, he ran a then-innovative business for theater-goers to purchase tickets by phone, using a credit card.[4] He sold the business, Quickcharge, to a predecessor of Ticketmaster.[10]

In 1989, in his mid-40s and an event salesperson for a large Los Angeles theater, Compton suffered a complete mental breakdown;[11] his family believes it may have been caused by his use of crystal methamphetamine.[10] When he was diagnosed as having late-onset schizophrenia, he had already left his job and had no health insurance. After three admissions to a private hospital over a nine-month period, paid for by his family, he was transferred to a public hospital. Upon his discharge from there, Compton went to live in a community board and care home. He began hearing voices again, ending up living on the streets for nine months,[12] panhandling for money to buy food.[13] In the early 1990s, he made his way to a hospital waiting room, his first step on the road to recovery.[4]

[edit] Presentations and testimony

In 2001, while president of the California Network of Mental Health Clients, a statewide alliance of consumers, Compton testified before the state legislature’s Joint Commission on Mental Health Reform.[6]

Compton made presentations at state and national conferences on topics such as establishing and enhancing a network of self-help clubs, running a peer support telephone help line and incorporating the role of consumer-run services into a mental health system.[1][14][8]

He regularly made presentations to graduate students at the University of Southern California School of Social Work and psychology students at the University of California Los Angeles.[9]

[edit] Awards and recognition

  • In June 2001, the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) presented the Clifford W. Beers Award to Compton at its annual conference in Washington, D.C.[5]
  • In June 2002, Compton received the Consumer Advocacy Award from the International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitative Agencies.[6]
  • In November 2003, Eli Lilly and Company gave Compton its "Helping Move Lives Forward Reintegration Award" for his mentorship of people with mental illness.[9]
  • In 2004, Compton was included in Who's Who in America. [15]
  • In 2007, Compton received a proclamation from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for bringing Project Return Peer Support Network members "into a full participation in community life."[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Biography at National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy (NARPA), accessed December 26, 2006
  2. ^ a b "What's in a Name", National Mental Health Association of Greater Los Angeles, "News", accessed August 27, 2007
  3. ^ Steve Lopez, "Lives may founder, but yacht sales will flourish", Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2007
  4. ^ a b c d e Joceyln Y. Stewart, "William H. Compton Jr., 71; Theater lover was advocate for the mentally ill"Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2007. (Note: Compton was 61 years old, not 71, when he died.)
  5. ^ a b "NMHA Presents Highest Honor to Consumer Advocate", National Mental Health Association press release, May 31, 2001
  6. ^ a b c d Biography of Bill Compton, Mental Health America (formerly the National Mental Health Association), accessed December 26, 2006
  7. ^ Resolution of the Board of Directors of Mental Health America (pdf) accessed September 8, 2007
  8. ^ a b c Bill Compton's presentation to NAPAS, San Diego, January 2006 (via archive.org)
  9. ^ a b c d "Mental Health Advocate Bill Compton named to Chair Pacific Clinics Board of Directors", press release, Pacific Clinics, November 14, 2003, via archive.org
  10. ^ a b J.M. Lawrence, "William Compton Jr.; used his own struggle to help others", Boston Globe, September 7, 2007
  11. ^ Shawn Hubler, "Amid Debate Over Ethics and Drugs, People Can Get Lost", Los Angeles Times, December 2, 1999
  12. ^ Bill Compton, "Stuck Out There", The Bell (National Mental Health Association), June 2001
  13. ^ Ian McMillan, "For a Few Dollars More", Mental Health Practice (UK), July 2003
  14. ^ 2005 National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy conference - list of speakers and topics
  15. ^ Project Return: The Next Step (PR:TNS), welcome page

[edit] External links

  • PRTNS.org - Project Return: The Next Step (PR:TNS)